The faster they come, the sooner I shoot 'em down.”"[MP:67]
Sharpshooters are rangers, often, due to their focus on ranged weapons, archer rangers, but not necessarily, who excel in the field of ranged combat. Specifically, sharpshooters focus their training and skills on obtaining an unusually high degree of accuracy in their attacks. Skilled sharpshooters can become legendary, making history as, with one arrow, they slay kings or generals. But even lesser sharpshooters can be deadly from afar.[MP:67]
Culture[]
Though there are many paths for a warrior who seeks to become a master of archery, many such traditions either focus on the number or type of enemies slain and put a focus on mid-range combat. By contrast, sharpshooters are more concerned with the accuracy of their arrows, eschewing concerns of maneuverability or keeping count of enemies felled and instead worrying about making their hit count, either from far away or at point blank range, and on maintaining stealth in maneuverability's place. For example, in contrast with the similar battlefield archers, who often fire multiple arrows in order to sow chaos amongst their enemies, a sharpshooter instead learns to reload more quickly so that each arrow has a better chance of hitting its target.[MP:67]
Sharpshooters, like most archers, have a reputation for using bows, though a large number use crossbows as well or instead. Whatever their weapon of choice, sharpshooters focus solely on it, training to a degree of near obsession to become the very best in their field, challenging others to contests of skill. Many sharpshooters even challenge one another to duels to the death, so strong is their desire to excel. With enough training, sharpshooters become a wonder to behold in combat, firing and reloading faster than most would imagine possible, their arrows seemingly alive as they fell the archer's foes, near or far.[MP:67]
Abilities[]
In order to compete with archers of more versatile traditions, sharpshooters learn a number of methods for keeping their attacks swift and deadly. Best known, perhaps, is a sharpshooter's ability to reload remarkably swiftly and in the heat of combat, adrenaline can allow a sharpshooter to take a shot and make another attack within an instant. Sharpshooters are also able to take advantage of an enemy's fumbles more easily than most archers, striking their vulnerable foes with a ranged attack before they have the chance to react. Similarly, sharpshooters are experts at using stealth in combination with their assault, striking from a hidden location to deal full damage to their quarry while remaining themselves difficult to hit.[MP:67]
A sharpshooter's exploits place a similar degree of emphasis on quick reloading, though with an additional focus on each shot's lethality. Perfect aim is such a technique learned fairly early on by sharpshooters that requires them to remain perfectly still but with the benefit of a particularly deadly shot. Escalating barrage is more in line with the former methodology, allowing a sharpshooter to make several attacks within a single instance, each one deadlier than the last.[MP:67]